EA CEO Predicts Next-Gen Consoles "Probably Starting Next Year"

EA's stock has been suffering along with other game makers that are publicly traded on Wall Street. Its chief executive officer, however, believes his company's numbers will turn around if it can make the move to next-gen consoles fairly soon.
That means, according to EA CEO John Riccitiello's logic, that we'll hopefully be seeing the new generation of consoles from the big publishers in 2013, according to his

EA's stock has been suffering along with other game makers that are publicly traded on Wall Street. Its chief executive officer, however, believes his company's numbers will turn around if it can make the move to next-gen consoles fairly soon.

That means, according to EA CEO John Riccitiello's logic, that we'll hopefully be seeing the new generation of consoles from the big publishers in 2013, according to his interview with CNBC.

Riccitiello laid out the company's biggest challenges, which included a heavy saturation of the game market for the next generation of consoles. His prediction for their appearance coincided with his views on how that could factor into their NPD data.

"I think a major catalyst coming forward and the most important catalyst coming forward is visibility on next-gen consoles because that NPD data…that can and should be reversed out at some point probably starting next year."

Granted, it's not a direct prediction that starts with "I believe that next-gen consoles will come out in…" but logically, it makes sense. The financials haven't been so hot lately and both the big three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo) and the third party developers are starting to see that the longevity for the current consoles may finally be waning and it might be time to push something new out while people can still afford it. Consoles like Ouya also may not be able to compete on the same level but the massive amount of money they raised should at least serve as a big sign to the bigger companies that the game playing public is hungry for something new.